In the 1850s, there were about 30,000 homeless children in New York City. They lived on the streets. Today, “orphan” refers to a child whose parents both died. In the 1850s, “orphan” also referred to homeless children.

New York City was overcrowded with thousands of new immigrants arriving each month. They came from countries all over the world and moved to New York to find a better life. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough jobs for all these people in New York and many immigrants lived in poverty. Often, they lived in unhealthy and overcrowded conditions. Many got sick and many others didn’t have enough money to feed all their children. Families in these sad situations often gave one or more children to an orphanage.

Thousands of children lived on the street in New York City. They had no one to care for them. They sold newspapers, shined shoes, or sold flowers. Many picked pockets, which means they stole money from people because they had no other way to get money for food.

A man named Charles Loring Brace worried about New York’s orphans. He wanted to find a way to help them, so he started the Children’s Aid Society. This society found homes for these children across the West. He realized that many farmers needed help on their farms. The orphans needed homes. The orphans could work for the farmers. The farmers would give the orphans homes. The Children’s Aid Society sent children west by train. These trains became known as Orphan Trains. They weren’t trains full of orphans. They were groups of about 10–30 children who took different trains out west to find new families.

The Children’s Aid Society sent out notices to different towns across the West. The notices told about the coming orphans. They explained that the orphans needed good homes. The trains stopped in different towns. They put the orphans up on a stage. They put them “up for adoption.” The townsfolk would choose which children they wanted. Often, they would look in the children’s mouths, check their muscles, and make them do pushups. They did this to make sure the children were healthy. If a husband and wife wanted child, they had to sign a form. They had to agree to give the child an education—the child had to go to school for at least four months per year. They had to give them a home, food, and a good upbringing.

Families also wrote to the Children’s Aid Society to request an orphan. A family could ask for a six-year-old boy with brown hair and blue eyes. The society would then find a boy who fit that description and send him to that family.

Sadly, brothers and sisters were often separated. Most families didn’t want to adopt more than one child at a time. The best these siblings could hope for was to all be adopted by families in the same town.

Between 1854 and 1929, around 250,000 children went west on the Orphan Trains. It is estimated that about two million Americans descend from these orphans.